Tis The Season
by EmmyEeveeZorua
Summary: While Christmas shopping with her uncle, a young Emmy Altava gets lost and receives some help from an unexpected source. Emmy/Desmond fluff. Spoilers for PL6.


**AN: So I wrote another Desmond/Emmy oneshot! And it has a Christmassy theme to it (3 months late or 9 months early depending on your point of view). They're also much younger in this, with Emmy being about 6.**

* * *

"Uncle Leon! Where are you?!" a young Emmy screamed over the din of the crowded street. She had paused to look at one of the brightly lit Christmas displays in one of the shop windows, and when she had turned around to point it out to her uncle and his companion when she realized that they had both disappeared. In a panic, the small girl had fled down the street, dodging many parcel-laden passerby before stopping at the opposite corner of the street, with her uncle nowhere in sight.

Shivering slightly dispite her coat, she hugged herself tightly, unsure of what to do. She had no idea where her uncle could be, or if he was still outside on the street. Should she continue to search for him outside, or she should look around inside some of the buildings? Or should she simply stay put and hope that her uncle found her there? She looked at the gently falling snowflakes, wondering what to do.

"Little Miss? Are you lost?" came a male voice from above Emmy's head. She looked up to see a teenaged boy with curly brown hair, looking down at her from behind his red browline glasses. "Y-Yes," she anwered, looking down at her feet. "But I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. So I can't tell you that I'm lost. Please forget that I told you I was lost. Goodbye." She started to walk off, but the stranger quickly caught up with her.

"Sweetie, you can't just walk off when you're lost, even if I'm a stranger." he told her, grabbing her hand to prevent her from running off. "Now who are we looking for? Your Mummy or your Daddy?" "We're looking for my Uncle Leon," Emmy replied, feeling a little guilty about disobeying the 'stranger-danger' law. "But I don't know where he could of gone. He was talking with a man and they disappeared when I was looking in one of the windows."

"So you were looking at the window displays and you lost track of him?" the teen said. "Yes," the little girl said, shivering once again. "That happened to me once, but luckily my dad was close by. Wow, you're freezing," he commented, putting his hand on her cheek, which Emmy quickly pushed away. "How long have you been out in the cold?" She shrugged her shoulders, and answered, "I don't know. But I'm cold."

"Well, we're going to have to fix that. There's a cafe nearby were we can get something warm to drink. Would you like to come? My name is Sycamore, by the way. What's yours?" "I'm Emmy," she said, and reached for his hand. "Can I hold your hand?" "Sure, Sweetie. Now let's get to that cafe."

-/-/-/-/-

Leon Bronev looked around the crowded street with worry etched onto his face. He had turned away from his niece to talk to his friend for one second, and then she had vanished. He turned to walk down the street towards where he last saw his niece. He would have to hurry in this weather. She wouldn't last long alone.

-/-/-/-/-

"So, Miss Emmy," Mr. Sycamore asked. "Do you have any idea were your uncle could have gone?" "No," Emmy answered, taking a large gulp of her hot cocoa. "I think we came to go Christmas shopping, but that's it." "Oh, well that makes finding him a bit more difficult, but I think we'll manage to find him regardless." he said. "Would you like to hear a joke in the meantime?" The little girl nodded her head. "Yes, please."

"There once were two birds who had three eggs in their nest... What is it, Emmy" "Mr., that's not funny. Funny jokes go like this: Where do cows go on the weekends? To the _moo_-vies! Ha Ha, get it?" "Yes, Emmy, I get it very well. But you have to listen longer in order to get it. One day, they left the eggs in the care of their friend, who was a sna-. Now what, Emmy?"

"I don't think I like this joke very much." she commented. "It doesn't seem funny." Sycamore sighed. "I get that a lot. It seems we've finished our drinks. It's probably best that we find your uncle now. He'll be worried about you, because for all he knows, you're alone in the cold. And little girls shouldn't be left alone in the cold for very long." "Why not, Mr. Sycamore?" the little girl asked as she got down from her seat and pulled on her coat. "Frosty things can happen; that's why."

The two exited the cafe with Sycamore holding Emmy in his arms, as she claimed to be too full of warmth to get cold again so quickly, a claim the teen had doubted, but had done anyway. "Now where's the last place you saw your uncle?" "I saw him over there," Emmy answered, pointing down the street. "At the shop display at the corner of the street we're on now." "Let's hurry there, then. Once he notices that you're missing, he'll head towards the place he last saw you." The teen then walked as fast as he could down the icy street.

-/-/-/-/-

"Uncle Leon!" Bronev turned to see his niece and a gangly teenage boy walking towards him, with the former waving energetically at him from her spot in the boy's arms. "Emmy! Where did you go? I was so worried about you!" he cried as he took her from the panting teenager. "She was... Looking at the window display... And she noticed you were gone." wheezed the teen, trying to catch his breath. "And then Mr. Sycamore found me and warmed me up with some hot cocoa!" Emmy piped up. The older man turned to the much younger one. "Did you really take care of my niece?"he asked. "Yes, I did. I couldn't leave her out in the cold like that. It wouldn't have been right." the teen replied, looking much better after having regained his breath.

"Well, thank you for doing that. I seriously doubt many boys your age would of helped a lost little girl," Bronev thanked the boy. "It wasn't any problem at all," Sycamore said, "It was quite nice watching your niece. She's quite an entertaining young lady. Well, I have to go now. I'll see you all around town, possibly." Both uncle and niece watched him cross the street, with Emmy being slightly more interested than Bronev.

* * *

_Many years later..._

"I remember this shop from when Uncle Leon and I came here for Christmas years ago," Emmy said to Desmond as the two gazed into the window display on the corner of a crowded street. "I got lost looking at the display, and a very nice teenaged-boy found me and helped me find him." "How old were you?" her boyfriend asked, still looking into the window at their reflections. "Oh, I couldn't of been more than six. I was lucky that that boy came along, otherwise I might have been lost for a while." she answered, blushing slightly. "You didn't have a little crush on that boy, did you? Or is the redness on your cheeks from the cold?" Desmond said slyly, watching his girlfriend flush a brighter red. "Oh, stop it. What's it matter to you if I had a small crush on him? Not that I did, of course." she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"It doesn't matter to me, I was just curious," Desmond said defensively. "It's just that I remember having a cup of cocoa with a rather sweet young girl around here." "Hey, that's what the boy who helped me did. He took me to a cafe to warm me... Desmond, how long did you know this?" "Awhile. Now would this sweet young girl mind if I took her to the cafe to get a drink?" he winked. Emmy smiled. "No, she wouldn't mind. Now let's go."


End file.
